Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-05-30
rns Act to Protect our wines.

wr,s Act tn Protect our wines.
ON the 9th OF June the State Con-
troller will be ready to furnish stamps
for hotties and casks OF California
wine. The rate will be $i.oo per
thousand. From the time these
stamps are procurable every bottle
and every cask of California wine
must have one affixed-the bottle
over the cork, and the cask across
the bung. The penalty for infractlon
of the law is fine not to exceed Sooo
and imprisonment not to exceed
ninety days. These stamps are an
official certi6cation that the wines are
of the pure vintage of California, ana
the name of the maker or dealer
must appear upon the stamps IN cor
roboration of that fact. 1t is made
misdemeanor for any one except the
party to whom the stamps are issued
bv the Controller, to use the same or
to have them in his possession. The
party applying for stamps must state
on oath that he wants them for his
own use only, and that he will not
give, loan or sell them; il he does, the
act is declared to be felony. Twice
a year the Controller must call for
statement of stamps on hand from
parties to whom they have been is
sued; if they neglect to make such
return they are guilty OF a misde-
meanor. 1t is believed that the strict
carrying out OF the provisions OF this
law will put an end to the adultera-
ton Of our wines, although it is doubt
full whether this business has been
carried on to any very great extent.
The greatest injury inflicted upon Cal
fornia wines has been through the
bottling and labelling OF them for
this and the Eastern markets as pop
ular French brands. So extensive
has this business become that nearly
all our wines have been fraudulently
sold under false labels. Several very
large houses in San Francisco de-
voted themselves exclusively to this
peculiar deception. The boxes were
| imported from France already bran
ded with names of the wines our
own were to be made to represent.
Labels, in exact imitation OF the
genuine French labels, were pasted
on the bottles, and even the corks
were stamped on the bottom the
same as the corks found in imported
wines in bottle. This business was
rapidly extinguishing California
wines, as such, as an article OF com
merce. Whilst our wines were good
enough to take the place of a large
variety of imported brands, they lost
their individuality and became un-
known to wine drinkers in Eastern
cities. 1t is plain that if this sort Of
thing were to be long tolerated, Cali
fornia wines, as such, would soon
have no place in our traffic abroad
and no reputation among con-
sumers. The method was perhaps
the m ost injurious to our vineyard
interests that could have been pu
into practice, and it made the whole
industry accessory to suicidal FRAUD
upon the public. Our wines are en-
titled to fair play. On their own
merits they will become popular, il
dealt with honestly. This law is de-
signed to give them this fair play, by
securing to them benefits similar to
those that are secured to individual
manufacturers who have legal trade
mark for the articles they put upon
the market. If it will accomplish
this result, it will be OF incompatible
advantage to the wine industry OF
California.